momagri, movement for a world agricultural organization, is a think tank chaired by Christian Pèes.It brings together, managers from the agricultural world and important people from external perspectives, such as health, development, strategy and defense. Its objective is to promote regulationof agricultural markets by creating new evaluation tools, such as economic models and indicators,and by drawing up proposals for an agricultural and international food policy.

The WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi:
veni, vidi, non vici...

January 4, 2016

The 162 member countries of the WTO met in Nairobi in Kenya from 15th to 18th December for the Organization’s 10th Ministerial Conference. Yet even though Roberto Azevedo hoped this would conclude the Doha Round, there was once again no major breakthrough. Worse, the difficult subject of agriculture was barely discussed except for the announcement of the official ban on agricultural export subsidies by 2018, which is purely symbolic since their application has almost disappeared from global agricultural policies.

Consequently, the other two pillars of agricultural policy, namely market access and domestic support, were the subject of a carefully orchestrated omerta, because neither developing countries nor industrialized countries come to agreement when trade liberalization also means the dismantling of their agricultural support policies.

Ultimately the trade ministers in Nairobi signed the death of the Doha Round and it is agricultural issues that buried it. Moreover, the very fact that negotiations broke down on this point reveals the sector’s strategic importance for all countries of the world, developed and developing, which are indeed less and less willing to sacrifice their agricultural interests in favour of the conclusion of a WTO agreement or a free trade agreement.

“A road to a new era for the WTO opened up in Nairobi”, declared Michael Froman, United States, representative during the Conference. For now, the only road that many WTO member countries prefer to take is that of bilateral agreements and the creation of large trade zones such as the Transatlantic Partnership. But again, what safety measures will ensure everyone’s agricultural interests?